(...) both of which messes with the ranking system and in turn, causes all kinds of weirdness with their online matchmaking.
Elaboration on this, although most of it has been alluded to in a sibling; This doesn't simply mean that the cheating player gets his hindquarters handed to him by vastly superior players when not cheating, but also that said vastly superior players' enjoyment is curbed because they were looking for someone to give them a challenge, and instead end up with their time wasted in a manner not of their own choosing, i.e. curb-stombing an outclassed opponent when they wanted a genuinely challenging match.
I have no doubt this will make them money, but it will also make them look much worse on traffic accident statistics vs. other states.
Not necessarily. If they really do check that the car's performance is up to the task of doing 90mph on the freeway without endangering the passengers or other road users, it will be the exact opposite; It won't make them look much worse on traffic accident statistics, but it won't make them all that much money either.
to answer your questions: -the numbers are on a do not call list, so the companies haven't got the slightest right to call them, it's illegal in fact
In this scenario, yes; to be entirely honest, I'm not entirely sure--haven't looked yet--but I'm willing to place a bet that if an unused number is on the United States' Do Not Call list, it doesn't mean a whole lot because a subscriber did not request it, rendering that fact moot. Might be different in the UK, I don't live there, and in many facets their laws and trends are different from those in the US.
The number still belongs to someone, or they wouldn't be allowed to hook up a honeypot system in the first place, ergo they are allowed to request that it be put on the Do Not Call list. They'd just have to take it off the list when they sell the number on to someone else if the subscriber requested it.
The game industry now more than ever needs to find ways to ad value. If they wanted to tackle piracy they would just about be packaging hats and tshirts with the latest game releases. Not so long ago I picked up an old 90's DOS game called Inferno http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(video_game)at a lawn sale, which came bundled with a rather thick graphic novel providing backstory. I believe this may have been a first in the industry. This was very cool in a period when the industry was experiencing huge growth. I have seldom seen the same thing since.
This almost begs an experiment; make the disc image of a game available on the Internet a few months after release. From that point on only sell "deluxe" packs of the game, with thick four-color manuals, posters, figures and whatnot, combined with spiffy cover and label art. My hypothesis is that this would bring in more net profit in the long run compared to the way the game industry currently does it. This would be because the free downloaders would know they aren't getting what their money could buy, whereas now they are only missing some metaphysical addition that only the game industry seems to care about.
Wait, salmiakki-flavored squid? That might actually work. At the very least it would have the "tastes unlike anything else" bonus to it's popularity.
Hey, the Japanese eat fugu just for the kick of not knowing if the chef accidentally laced the fish with powerful neurotoxins.
Which begs yet another question; Why exactly shouldn't a bullied kid hit the bully back, if he's going down for fighting anyway? The way I see it, fight back and you'll get detention for fighting. Don't fight back, and you still get detention for fighting and the bully will be coming for you again sooner or later.
Now that's what you need to teach bullied kids, not some crapola about reading social cues.
My sentiments exactly. Imagine if they were throwing out everyone paying attention to the odds in poker.
For that matter, if the outcome is deterministic and unfavorable, why have the game in the casino in the first place?
I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"
